The goals won’t come nearly as easy tonight for the United States as they did in beating the Dominican Republic and Guatemala in their first two Olympic qualifying matches (read: ROUTS) by an amazing count of 27-0, but you better believe the United States women’s soccer team will try to beat Mexico by that much if it can. The Americans, you see, lost 2-1 to Mexico in 2010 during World Cup qualifying. They’d never lost a Cup or Olympic qualifier until then, so the world’s No. 1 team was rightly ticked – and still is. It made the Americans’ road to last summer’s World Cup in Germany much tougher. So tonight in Vancouver (10:30 ET) is the rematch, and as usual in the middle of it all will be Mary Abigail Wambach, the Pittsford native, Mercy High graduate and world soccer star.

The 31-year-old forward scored twice in Sunday’s blasting of Guatemala to pass Germany’s Birgit Prinz (128) and move into third place all-time scoring with 129 goals. Next up is former teammate, Kristine Lilly at 130. We’re not talking U.S. Soccer, folks. This is ALL-TIME. For every woman who has ever played soccer on the planet, Abby is on the brink of scoring the second most goals EVER. Mia Hamm is No. 1 at 158. Several years ago I thought Abby had a good shot to break that record, but her broken leg before the 2008 Olympics and a different style of play has curtailed that pursuit. Hamm averaged a goal every 130 minutes (or about 1.5 games); Abby’s strike rate is the best in U.S. history at 98.9. Wambach should be able to get to No. 2 soon. Maybe even tonight. There is live TV coverage on Universal Sports Network (if you happen to have it), but you can watch online at www.universalsports.com.

SHE SCORES, THEY WIN: A notable stat, the United States is 81-2-5 when Wambach scores. The most recent of the two losses came in the World Cup against Sweden. She also scored in the World Cup final, but that goes down as a draw in the record books because it was tied after overtime and decided on penalty kicks.

DID YOU HEAR … About the game soon-to-be WPS rookie Sydney Leroux had in Saturday’s 13-0 win over Guatemala? She scored five goals, tying a team record, in the second half of her second match ever for the Americans. They were her first ever international goals. That matched what Amy Rodriguez did on Friday against the DR. Four other women have achieved that: Wambach (2004), Tiffeny Milbrett (2002), Michelle Akers ( 1991) and Brandi Chastain (1991). Leroux will play for Atlanta in WPS this year. She was the No. 1 pick in the draft earlier this month. Three national team defender also have joined the Beat, who were a last-place and awful team last year. They are Rachel Buehler, Amy LePeilbet and Kelly O’Hara. With Carli Lloyd also back for ATL, it should be much improved.

HIGHLIGHTS: Here are five goals from Sunday’s win, including one each by Western New York Flash forward Alex Morgan and new Flash midfielder, Lori Lindsey.

Leave a Reply

Jeff DiVeronica has covered professional soccer and the Rhinos for the Democrat and Chronicle since the team's inception in 1996. "Devo's Direct Kicks" takes aim mostly at Rochester soccer, but will also highlight the USL, MLS and U.S. national team play. Devo, his nickname since college at St. John Fisher, also hosts two weekly radio shows each Saturday on WHTK-AM/FM (1280/107.3 or www.whtk.com). "Kick This!" (11 a.m.) features soccer talk, while the Canandaigua National Bank High School Sports Show (noon) covers Section V sports. E-mail Jeff at jdiveron@DemocratandChronicle.com.
Or follow him on Twitter: @RocDevo